A manually operated swipe type information processing device has been conventionally known in which a card is manually swiped in a guide portion (card traveling path) for reading information recorded on the card. In this specification, the word “swipe” means an operation of a card-shaped information recording medium which is manually moving along a guide portion (card traveling path) of an information processing device.
The manually operated swipe type information processing device is provided with an image scanner for taking an image of a pattern such as a two-dimensional bar-code on a card face to obtain its image data. For example, a reduced optical type image scanner is used as the image scanner (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-259902). The reason of utilizing the reduced optical type image scanner is that, since its depth of field is deep, it is easy to focus even when a relative distance of a card to a reading face is varied due to movement (swiping) of the card.
However, when the reduced optical type image scanner is utilized, an optical path length is required to be longer to some extent and thus the entire device is liable to enlarge. Especially, it is not suitable for the image scanner to be mounted on a portable information processing device which is capable of being carried around. Further, a reduced optical type image scanner is expensive in comparison with other scanners such as a contact type image scanner and thus it is not preferable as an image scanner which is mounted on a portable information processing device whose unit price is inexpensive.
From such a point of view, a portable information processing device has been reconsidered on which a contact type image scanner is mounted instead of a reduced optical type image scanner. A length of the contact type image scanner is shorter and thus its size is smaller than the reduced optical type image scanner. Therefore, the contact type image scanner is suitable for a portable information processing device.
A portable information processing device is provided with convenience of portability and thus its using place can be changed or it can be taken out to a visiting place. Therefore, a reading face (glass face) of a contact type image scanner which is mounted on the portable information processing device is often used in an environment that is easy to be dirty in comparison with an indoor installation type information processing device. Accordingly, cleaning of the glass face of the contact type image scanner is an extremely important work.
As a first technique for cleaning the glass face of the contact type image scanner, for example, it is conceivable that a cleaning card is swiped in the portable information processing device. A cleaning card is formed of, for example, a substrate made of PETP (poly ethylene terephthalate) on which acrylic resin or glass fibers are adhered. According to the above-mentioned cleaning method, fragments and dust which are stuck to the glass face of the contact type image scanner can be removed by tangling them with acrylic resin or glass fibers.
However, in this first technique, cleaning of the glass face of the contact type image scanner is not performed directly while the glass face is visually observed Therefore, an operator cannot visually observe and confirm whether fragments and dust which are stuck to the glass face have been removed or not. On the contrary, even in the case that the operator has visually confirmed that the fragments and dust were not removed, when their adhesive force is large, it is difficult that they are effectively removed only by using a cleaning card.
In order to solve the problem as described above, as a second technique to clean the glass face of the contact type image scanner while the glass face is directly and visually observed, it may be conceivable that a part of a frame on an opposite side to a frame on which the contact type image scanner is provided is structured slidably in a carrying direction of an information recording medium. According to the structure described above, the glass face of the contact type image scanner can be visually observed by sliding the frame and thus the fragments and dust stuck to the glass face can be removed surely.
However, the second cleaning technique described above has the following problems.
First, when a part of the frame of the contact type image scanner is to be slid in the carrying direction of an information recording medium, a large space is required by the sliding amount of the frame. Therefore, the size of the information processing device cannot be reduced.
Further, even when the glass face of the contact type image scanner has been cleaned, cleaning of a roller which is commonly arranged at a position facing the glass face is difficult. In other words, when a part of the frame is simply slid, although the glass face can be observed visually, the roller facing the glass face is difficult to be observed visually. Accordingly, the roller is difficult to be cleaned sufficiently.
In addition, when the frame is opened and closed by a slide operation, there is a possibility that a user does not notice that the frame has been in a half-lock state (not completely closed state). Further, even in a state that the frame is completely closed after cleaning has been finished, for example, when vibration is applied to the information processing device for a long time, the frame may be moved from the completely closed state to the half-lock state.